A veteran of women's basketball, Joe Conroy enters his third season as a member of NIU head coach Kathi Bennett's staff. Known for his passion for the game and NIU, Conroy's expertise has played a large role in the Huskies earning a win and making a quarterfinals appearance in the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time since 2007.

"Joe is a Huskie through-and-through," Bennett said, who promoted Conroy to associate head coach on June 1, 2012. "He has been in this area before and absolutely loves Northern Illinois University."

Conroy spent three seasons as the top assistant for head coach Sandy Botham and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For the Panthers Conroy helped set the foundation for the team's second ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Milwaukee placed second in the Horizon League in each of Conroy's three seasons, achieving a 34-14 (.708) conference record during that period.

A 1990 DePaul University graduate, Conroy arrived in Milwaukee after serving as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator for head coach Linda Wunder at Eastern Illinois University. In Conroy's first year at EIU, the Panthers doubled their Ohio Valley Conference win total.

Prior to his stint in Charleston, Ill., Conroy, an active member of both the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, pioneered the Director of Basketball Operations position at Northern Illinois University under head coach Carol Hammerle.

Conroy spent a large portion of his coaching career at Illinois Valley Community College, a Division III junior college in Oglesby, Ill. The Spring Valley, Ill. native served as IVCC's head women's coach for eight seasons, manning the sidelines from 1993-1999. While at IVCC, Conroy led his squad to a third-place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association national tournament in 1995-96. A recipient of the NFCAA Rose Bataglia Sportsmanship Award, Conroy successfully placed 100% of his junior college athletes at the university level.

Prior to accepting his current position at NIU, Conroy spent five years as a coach at Woodstock and Woodstock North High Schools. From 2005-08, he guided the WHS boys before venturing to WNHS, a new school at the time, to get its boys basketball program off the ground.

The 47-year-old Conroy is married to the former Cari Hoskins. The couple resides in DeKalb with their three sons, Ethan (15), Mason (13), and Porter (10).